Texas’ system of public higher education, like that of every state in the union, finds itself today fighting a war on two fronts: it simultaneously is battling to restore not only affordability but also quality. The average cost of tuition at Texas public universities has increased five percent a year—every year—since 1994. In this Texas is far from unique: in the last 25 years, tuitions across the nation have increased 440 percent—twice the rate of the increase in health-care costs. To pay for these historic price increases, students and their parents have been burdened with historic debt. Total student-loan debt today stands at roughly one trillion dollars. For the first time in American history, total student-loan debt exceeds national credit-card debt.